New Orleans Mardi Gras Festival

Jon Cleary’s love for New Orleans music goes back to the rural British village of Cranbrook, Kent, where he was raised in a musical family. Cleary has led his own group, the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, for over two decades. His work pays homage to the classic Crescent City keyboard repertoire created by such icons as Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Art Neville, Dr. John, and James Booker – while also using it as a launching pad for a style that incorporates such other diverse influences as ’70s soul and R&B, gospel music, funk, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Cuban rhythms, and much more.

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